All In: Everything

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

The current sermon series at Encounter Church is about going “All In: No Reserves, Retreats, or Regrets”. Many of us have “all in” experiences to share—some at Encounter have labored for hundreds of hours as volunteers on church renovation projects—they have tirelessly salted sidewalks, mowed the grass, laid flooring and trim, fixed odds and ends, and done so much more. Other people have performed amazing physical feats, like finishing the Riverbank or a marathon or even an Ironman (yep, you guessed it, I finished an Ironman. NOPE.) I would think that one would have to dig pretty dip to swim 2.4 miles, then bike 112 miles, and finish the day with a 26.2 mile run. But when it comes to going “all in” it’s not just about completing the day’s challenges or spending weeks installing trim, it’s also about the years of training the lead up to these endeavors.

If you know me, you know that I have a tendency to go “half in”. This, as you can imagine, is not nearly as glamorous as going all in. I tend to flit between activities, enthusiastically starting something and then quitting it days (or hours) later.  For example, I was into mountain biking for a couple of years, I played guitar for a year or so, I was vegan for a couple weeks, and I made my own baby food, well, once.  Have you even blanched, pureed, and frozen spinach? Yuck. I’m afraid that I may have passed this trait along to my daughter, because two weeks ago as I carried her off the soccer field in the middle of her second practice ever she wailed, “I don’t like soccer. I want to go back to ballet.” And that was that for soccer.

Many of us approach our spiritual lives in the same ways. We might enthusiastically read our Bibles every day for a week or a month and then taper off. We might commit to prayer or to a Bible study and then find ourselves fledgling after a short time. We know that a healthy spiritual life is important, just as we know that it’s important to eat well and take a walk. But I wonder if sometimes our reticence to go “all in” for God might be a result of something that can be difficult to admit: we don’t actually want to live godly lives. At least, we don’t actually want to do everything that God requires.  

What if God tells me to change my major after I’ve already finished three years of college?

What if God calls me to be single for longer than I’d like?

What if God tells me to change jobs or to take a job in a far away place?

What if God tells me to give away a lot of money?

What if God keeps nudging me to have that difficult conversation I’ve been avoiding?

That’s the problem with going “all in”, and oddly, it’s the solution as well. Because even if we aren’t brave enough to go “all in” today, Jesus already braved God’s demands when he sacrificed his life for ours. In a few days we’ll hear the last installment of the “All In” series. In the meantime, we’ve certainly been challenged to take our spiritual disciplines and God more seriously, even when it feels like it just might require everything.

[Kristin vanEyk attends Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. Find out more about Encounter at http://myencounterchurch.org/]

A Different Call

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

There are certain topics I tend to write about more than others—some because of the stage of life I’m in, some because they interest me, and one in particular…because I’m terrible at it. I keep writing about it because I keep being terrible at it, and I suppose I think that if I’m terrible at it, maybe other people are too—so maybe we’re at least in it together.

I’m terrible at comparing myself to other people. Actually, I’m really good comparing myself to other people, which is exactly what makes it terrible. In our social media-saturated world, it’s easier than ever to do. Statuses proclaiming the miles she ran or the complicated dinner he made, photos of pets and vacations and boats and weddings and children, Pinterest boards full of completed crafts and artfully made recipes. And I see it all and think, “Why not me? God, why can’t I have those things and go those places do those things?”

In I Kings 19, Elijah calls Elisha to be the next prophet. I wonder what Elisha thought when this happened. We’re not given much insight into what he thought or felt about it, only that he wanted to be able to say goodbye to his parents. Then he went all in, burning the tools of his former trade and committing to follow Elijah and learn from him. Elisha understood that this call was from God, specifically for him. So he did it.

The Bible doesn’t mention anything about whether Elisha had siblings or cousins or friends around, so we don’t know what they did—but clearly they didn’t get called to become prophets, or we would have heard about it. Maybe they worked with Elisha in the fields or baked bread or built houses. Whatever it was, their call was no less important than Elisha’s; it was just different.

It’s the same way for us today. As Christians, our broad call is the same—to love and serve Jesus and follow him daily. There are a million different ways that can get played out in our everyday lives though--maybe as a teacher, a welder, a photographer, a grandma, a best friend, a husband, a youth leader, a guitar player, a greeter, or any other number of things.

Whatever our calling is, we shouldn’t be distracted by what someone else’s is. We’re free to go all in, fully committing to the unique call God has for us, not comparing ourselves to what he has for others and wondering if their call is “better.” It’s not better, it’s just right for them—and ours is just right for us. Wherever, whatever it is. 

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]

Obedience at the Fork in the Road

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

As an English teacher and a novice linguist, I’ve always been amused by Jesus’ words to his disciple in Matthew 16:18. Speaking to Peter, whose name means “rock”, Jesus says, “You are Peter [rock], and on this rock I will build my church.” Although this may not be the funniest pun, I like to think that Jesus’ clever play-on-words was not lost on his early followers.

But while the puns continue, the tone changes quickly. Just five verses later, Jesus rebukes Peter, referring to him as “Satan” and a “stumbling block” rather than a sturdy foundation. It may still be a play-on-words, but the humor is conspicuously absent.

Those of us who read with Western eyes may think that Jesus’ words are a bit harsh. After all, Jesus does compare Peter to “Satan”. But when we understand that “Satan” here translates to “adversary”, we come to a deeper understanding of Jesus’ displeasure. Peter has run out ahead of Jesus, and in so doing, has overrun his rabbi and taken on an adversarial role. Jesus issues a pointed reminder to Peter that he would do well to return to his place as disciple, his place behind Jesus, the place he first occupied when Jesus first extended the call to “Come, follow me” (Matt. 4:19).

Some of us run on ahead of Jesus with regularity. We believe that because of previous experience we know best, or we want something now that we know we ought to wait for, and so we put our own plans ahead of God’s. The call to discipleship is not an easy one, even though we may bear it lightly from time to time. When it’s time to deny ourselves, it is then we see what kind of disciples we are. At that fork in the road, where Jesus calls us to sacrifice what we want to preserve, or when Jesus calls us to forgive what we want to begrudge, then we see what kind of Peter we are—whether we are the foundation or the stumbling block, the adversary or the disciple. Jesus, of course, showed us the way to the ultimate denial of self: he was “obedient to death--even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8) and because of him we bear our sins and shame no more.

[Kristin vanEyk attends Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. Find out more about Encounter at http://myencounterchurch.org/]

Easter Every Day

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

The day after Christmas is always a rough one for me. While the tree and decorations may still be up, it just feels different. The day I’d been looking forward to for weeks has now come and gone. It’s a melancholy day, full of the memories of the day we just celebrated but with the tinge of sadness that comes with something being over.

The day after Easter is not the same at all. I went back to work, and besides the “How was your Easter?” conversations and a few flickering thoughts of the past weekend, it was a Monday like any other.

It shouldn’t have been though. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, should be the biggest deal of all. We celebrate Easter not just because the actual physical resurrection of Jesus coming back from the dead happened once and is something to be celebrated, but because it’s the one-time thing that should affect everything we do.

The world tells us to live to the full because we only live once. Have fun, throw caution to the wind, don’t be bothered about how your actions will affect your future. But as Christians we know that’s not the case—not only do our actions today affect our earthly tomorrow, but our ultimate tomorrow as well. 

Therein lays the beauty of Easter when we allow it to become something we experience every day: the promise of Jesus’ resurrection is that it can reorient everything in our lives.

Easter every day means giving up the things that are no longer good for us.

Easter every day means letting go of the idea that what we do doesn’t affect our future.

Easter every day means leaving behind what is easy for what is best.

When they saw him for the first time after his death, Jesus’ disciples were full of joy and amazement that he was alive and standing before them. It’s the same joy and amazement we’re privileged to have all the time, because we know that Jesus is alive and active and transforming us. Easter every day reorients all of our desires so that they fall in line with our ultimate desire following Jesus more closely. It’s not an instantaneous change, but a slow, gradual conforming of our lives to be more like Christ’s.

There shouldn’t be a “day after Easter letdown” nor should the day after be just another day, because the importance of Easter should be woven through the fabric of our everyday lives. 

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]

How Do We Emulate Christ on Good Friday?

This is the question that has been on my mind this week.

In Matthew chapter 5, Christ gives his followers some instructions for dealing with the “evil” person. The biblical authors are careful to lay out the ministry of Jesus as continuously pointing towards the cross, and through this lens I have recently come to a better understanding of Jesus’ words. I had always read Matthew 5 with the understanding that I was the one legally in the right, and that Jesus’ instructions outlined how I ought to respond to an “evil” person. But I see more clearly now. I see that as one of those evil people, it was me who welcomed Christ into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, and it was me who demanded his death by crucifixion 5 days later.

So what does Jesus say about dealing with these evil people like me? Well, Jesus issues the continuous reminder to focus on the person behind the perpetrations.  So while it may be the law that a civilian can be asked to carry a soldier’s belongings, our job is to focus on the soldier himself. And while a man may sue you and attempt to take the very shirt off your back, give him your coat as well so that in your nakedness you shame him and force him to work out an agreement personally with you. You force the conversation and the relationship to continue.

That is, after all, what Jesus did, isn’t it? When we sued him for his shirt he gave us his cloak as well, giving up his life for the forgiveness of our sins so that our evilness was laid out plainly before us. But even before he died on the cross, Jesus interceded on our behalf and asked God for our forgiveness. On Good Friday, a day during which we meditate upon the life-saving death of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s appropriate that we also meditate the death-defeating life that Christ lived for each one of us, and the work he did to ensure a personal relationship with each of us.

So how do we emulate Christ? We live lives devoted to sharing the good news of Easter.

[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, MI where she attends Encounter Church.]

Lessons from The Little Rascals

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

As a child, The Little Rascals was one of my favorite movies. My siblings and I watched it more times than I can count and nearly had it memorized. At the beginning of the film, Spanky and his friends Alfalfa, Stymie, Porky, Buckwheat, and others form the He-Man Woman Haters Club, which pretty much exists to keep girls out of it. As the movie goes on though, we discover that Alfalfa has not only been hanging out with a girl named Darla, but even serenading her with a love song on a romantic boat ride.

When the other boys find out, they are shocked and even a little grossed out, so they hatch a plan to break up Alfalfa and Darla. Yet through a series of events, by the end of the movie the boys realize that Darla and her friends are not so bad and invite them to hang out in their clubhouse. While there are a variety of circumstances that bring about this change of heart, it all began with Alfalfa.


Though we may not make official signs, I think the Church often creates its own versions of the He-Man Woman Haters Club. It can be easy to point this out in the Church as the worldwide body of Christ, but we cannot ignore the implications for us personally. We may not make physical signs, but we make them in our thoughts, behaviors, and hearts. There are certain types of people we are just hesitant to enfold into Church life. Maybe we base it on occupation, income level, sexual orientation, age, political views, or any number of factors. After a while, we get entrenched in the mentality of there being an insider “us” factor to the Church, and an outsider “them” label for those we don’t deem worthy.

When we look at I Corinthians 11, we see that this tendency has been around for thousands of years. Paul was writing to the people of Corinth to tell them to stop treating their church gatherings like a private party of insiders, with some people treated as the “upper crust” and treated to the best seats and food and others treated as the riffraff who were relegated to the crappy seats and mediocre food. They probably didn’t make signs announcing this information, but the implications were clear--“Not Welcome.”

I don’t think any of us intentionally try to make people feel not welcome, but welcoming people is not something that happens automatically. It has to be an intentional effort on the part of others. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have close friends and people we naturally gravitate towards, but we all have a role to play in creating an environment that is friendly and hospitable to anyone who enters it.

At the end of the Little Rascals, it wasn’t just about simply allowing girls to be in their clubhouse--it was welcoming them into a community. If Alfalfa hadn’t been the first to go against the grain and realize that girls are actually pretty cool, the rest of the rascals would’ve missed out on how great things can be when everyone is invited. In the coming weeks, maybe we can all try to be a little more like Alfalfa.

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]